Stephen King/John Mellencamp ghost story coming to Coronado

Get ready to be creeped out in downtown Rockford by the words of Stephen King and the songs of John Mellencamp.

Georgette Braun

Get ready to be creeped out in downtown Rockford by the words of Stephen King and the songs of John Mellencamp.

“Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” a Southern Gothic supernatural rock musical of fraternal love, lust, jealousy and revenge, will play on stage at the Coronado Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. Oct. 26.

T Bone Burnett, a record producer who acted as music director for “Ghost Brothers,” said in a telephone interview with the Register Star last month that the play that was 13 years in the making is based on a true murder/double suicide story.

It’s about what went on at a cabin in Indiana that Mellencamp bought. SPOILER ALERT: Years before, two brothers got in a fight over a girl, one killed the other and died with the girl a short time later.

“I know people who stayed there,” Burnett said of the cabin. “There were noises and radios going off and on,” he said.

Mellencamp — known for hits including “Jack & Diane” and “Pink Houses” — told King the story, and King — horror author extraordinaire — wrote the outline for the play. “There’s a lot of great Mellencamp songs,” Burnett said.

The play is “like a reading with music, like sitting in on a radio play with music,” Burnett said. “It will not run like a drama with costumes.”